Because I think we could take advantage of the popstar aspect of her character and make something out of it.
I know many people that are affiliated with the hellaverse in any way love to take shots at VivziePop, I'm not a fan of the woman either, but I still think that her art has tons of potential. When I say that I am rewriting her characters, I don't want to imply that I'm doing such a better job than she is and how she doesn't know what she's doing in the slightest. These are just my ideas of how I would have done it because in my opinion, Verosika deserves to be a little more than just the bitch ex-girlfriend character.
Giving her more personality than just despising her ex
My interpretation of Verosika is inspired by real life celebrities like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and Paris Hilton. Verosika loves nothing more than a good party where she gets to be the center of attention, she's met many of the other sins outside of Asmodeus, some she collabs to make duets with like Beelzebub, and some she's willing to risk her life just to make diss tracks about them like Satan. Her fame has gotten her off the hook multiple times and she's always looking for new limits to push.
One thing that Verosika and her posse do best is enabling infidelity. Why would they care about having healthy relationships? They're a bunch of succubi and incubi; they don't give a shit about the lives and after-lives they are actively destroying even more than they already are when they encourage the unhealthy mindset that monogamy is what leads to unhappiness in one's life, how could you have a fulfilling love life if they put all their energy into one person? You got to try everything there is to offer! Variety is what keeps people excited after all. Encouraging her fans to cheat on their partners and embrace open relationships is all part of the brand her record label wants her to curate for herself.
In spite of all those negative traits, Verosika isn't completely void of any positive personality traits. She really does enjoy music as a whole, sinners and hell-born listening to her hard work puts a smile on her face, and while her execution is a bit misguided, I do see her as someone who wants to throw parties where anyone can attend to get away from reality, they aren't even all break-up exclusive, they're for everyone having a hard time.
The Mayday's
As a succubus and a pop sensation, I could see her having her own "cult" of super fans that start to act almost like a hivemind during her concerts and seven ring tours across hell when they're all crowded together, these stans are referred to as "Mayday's" Some of them still live relatively ordinary lives as both hell-born and sinners alike when they aren't in Verosika's presence, others end up obsessed with spending every waking moment they have online and in public defending Verosika of every action and controversy she gets herself into. In their eyes, she can do no wrong, she's a perfect victim and nothing else, to the point where many of the Mayday's butcher the positive personality traits Verosika actually does have in place of molding her into their ideal celebrity, or God forbid, an ideal parter.
If I were to rewrite the apology tour episode, instead of an unhealthy house party full of Blitz's ex partners/hook ups, half of the guest list would be a bunch of Mayday's who want to join in on enabling their idol in their own violent and immature way and the other half would just be demons who don't really care about Verosika's breakup or the popstar in general and only pretend they care because hey, if you were told you could go to Taylor Swift's party as long as you pretended to hate one of her ex partners with a passion, you would probably do the same.
Her new role in the lust ring + New explanations for her behavior
One major change in my rewrite of Helluva Boss is the way the sins are portrayed. I found it a little out of place that the majority of the sins were these silly little beans who wanted the best for the demons they rule over, they're not bad, guys! They just want to throw parties and get along with the public! How could you not like them?
In my Au, the sins are at a constant turf war that has been going on ever since Lucifer and Lilith were cast out of heaven. With the fruit of knowledge giving humanity free will, it also gave them the free will to act selfishly, thus bringing the six other sins into existence. These guys weren't content with just having one ring to themselves, as they gain more power and influence over humanity and even over each other when they collect more souls throughout millennia.
Basically, when someone dies and goes to hell, their new home ring is the sin they most embody instead of all of them being forced into the pride ring exclusively, and because the sinners can explore hell in its entirety in my version, this gives the sins the opportunity to steal sinners from other rings and integrate them into their own. Sometimes the sins will even form treaties between each other. For example: Asmodeus and Beelzebub would be willing to team up and attack Mammon's territory together by luring away Loan sharks and greed sinners and splitting them evenly between each other once they are all fully brainwashed.
Verosika's role is high on this cooperate latter for the lust ring, her job, as well making new hit singles for the public, is to travel to other rings of hell for her seven ring tours with the intention of charming the habitants of those rings into being so infatuated by her that they are completely willing to emigrate into the lust ring to see her in person more often, from there they would be enticed by everything else there is to offer in the ring all about limitless pleasure, thus allowing Asmodeus to collect more hell born for his army and more damned souls of sinners.
As one of the most successful succubi Asmodeus has in his army, she is trusted with traveling to the human realm to essentially pre-order lust sinners by posing as a human celebrity. The adoration in both hell and earth clearly gets to Verosika and while she is instructed not to get too attached to the applause, it warmed her heart during her early years as a professional succubus to see groups of people getting together to listen to her sing, but of course, those groups wouldn't last when her fanbase kept growing into the pseudo cult it is now. She still lives for the applause, but the love she receives from the millions of fans is superficial, they don't know who she is outside of her celebrity status and they don't want to. This is one of the explanations on why she took Blitz effectively dumping her to heart the way she did, the one time she feels safe around someone whose job btw is meant to PROTECT her and he steals her car, her credit cards, and leaves her alone in a hotel, and taking both her sicko fans and the high chance that she could even be killed as revenge against Asmodeus into consideration, you can kind of understand why it affected her so much.
Speaking of which...
A more proper story about her former relationship with Blitz.
You know, for a relationship that ended so badly that Verosika kept appearing throughout the series just to screw Blitz over for being a shitty person, you'd think that we would get a little more knowledge about it prior to the breakup itself.
Verosika's brand is that she is that she's that one trashy celebrity that promotes sleeping around as empowerment, she doesn't chase, she GETS chased, and any man and woman who hooked up with her beforehand never stood by for long, and she was fine with that, both parties knew that what they had wasn't special, it was all just lust and that's all it ever would be.
So, when word gets around that Verosika is actually getting in a serious relationship, one that has lasted longer than usual, one that has gotten to the point where she tattooed his name on her arm. Fans lose their minds; this is NOT the Verosika they knew and for the first time, some fans actually started to dislike her for acting like a hypocrite, her posse is confused and demanding an explanation for what she sees in this person, and her record label is of course frustrated because how is Verosika going to keep up her reputation intact if she's willing to make some sacrifices for her new relationship?
Blitz and Verosika are the same type of trashy people, both are incredibly self-destructive and would much rather down multiple pints of Beelze-juice than actually reflect on their behavior. I honestly don't think that their relationship lasted for very long, about six months tops, and it was most likely spent with them going on long benders, partying at clubs, and generally being public menaces to society. I'm not saying that Vivzie should have included multiple episodes dedicated to them and nothing else, I'm just saying that a little background would help the audience actually understand where Verosika is coming from instead of just telling it to us in the guise of humor.
I already mentioned the level of danger Verosika could have been in as a famous/infamous celebrity in a hotel room by herself with no form of transportation or money to pay for the bus fare, even when she got home, how do you think the public would have taken this news? The tabloids would have been merciless in making fun of her for being the one who got dumped instead of the other way around, paparazzi following her home just so they snap pictures of her in tears, several other demons alike trying to approach her with the intentions of scamming her if it appeared to be THAT easy the first time, and that tattoo she got might be crossed out but it will always be a reminder of one of her lowest moments when she thought that maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to be self-destructive.
The aftermath
Instead of Verosika dedicating the rest of her screen time to being the scorned ex-lover, the idea to make songs dedicated to dissing her ex-boyfriend were brought on by her record label. Nothing gets the audience going more than a juicy story, combine that with her idol status and you get a cow that can be milked for at least another decade. Preferably, Verosika doesn't want the lowest moment of her life to define her, but it's what the fans want, and it works, a little too well.
Her one and only diss track about Blitz became her most well-known hit single, it's the one talk shows love to ask as their first question. How does she feel about her ex unintentionally being the best thing that happened in her career? Does she ever consider getting back together with him? What were the things they could have possibly done together for it to hurt her this much?
And she absolutely hates those questions, to the point where she is reluctant to answer questions from any of her fans anymore. Verosika tries dedicating even more of her time to rebuilding the reputation she once had, her performance in bringing Asmodeus more souls falters in favor of excessive partying, making public appearances at Ozzie's, starting her own brand of sex toys, getting a long list of DUI's, and more. She is NOT some loser washup that belongs in rehab, she is Verosika frickin Mayday and she's going to be remembered as one of the shining stars of the lust ring for centuries to come whenever they like it or not.
Sadly, coming into contact with her ex brings back a lot of unresolved anger and she can't help but snap back in revenge. Sure, she'll still fuck with Blitz if she sees him, even if it means giving the paparazzi what they want, but she has more in her life than just that and a character arc where she discovers healthier ways to move on and live her life would do her well.
An extra side note: That scene where Verosika tries to SA Moxxie with her friends is going to be removed entirely, I don't know why Vivzie has an obsession with adding random rape scenes into the plot for the sake of either romance, shock value, or even humor, but SA scenes that don't do anything for the plot don't have a place in this au. It may be hell but other crimes outside of rape exist, so I don't know why so many people are adamant that that they are "necessary" to show how evil certain characters are
Yes, this is Pinkster, yes he's a lady now, hes this took me four months to finish because I was so lazy
When she was a baby piggy, Persephone was left at the door of the orphanage in a gift basket, & was taken in from the get go.
She was a shy, timid, even defensive little girl, & didn't trust anybody, not even the caregivers. It seemed as though she'd never get close to anyone, & that heavily affected her chances at getting adopted.
That was, until she was 4 year old, & met Danger. He was loud, hyper, & always excited, with an optimism so palpable, it was infectious. He didn't treat her with the same gentle tactics as the caregivers, in fact, he was very straightforward, & adopted her as his best friend from the get go.
As it turned out, that actually worked. She became happier in the orphanage, even if she was still horribly timid. Danger would speak to her & for her, so she wouldn't be uncomfortable in the presence of the caregivers.
However, that all changed when she took notice of something. Strange noises in the orphanage, like footsteps, furniture that were always in one spot, would sometimes end up in another, & sometimes, she'd even hear sounds of deep, masculine voices, unlike the softer, higher-pitched feminine & masculine voices from the caregivers.
She was always far too scared to tell anyone, even Danger.
Unluckily for her, those men knew that. They counted on that.
Now that she was onto them, they decided to reveal themselves to her, knowing she wouldn't tell. They manipulated her, groomed her into believing that their way of thinking was correct, that they just wanted to be her parents, & that...
Danger wasn't really her best friend, & he was just using her.
She didn't want to believe that last one.
They spent a year targeting her, molding her mindset into the way they wanted, & one day, their teachings were put to the test.
Persephone knew that Danger had a double-headed coin, it was one of the only things he had on him when he was brought to the orphanage, & he'd always use it to get his way with the caregivers.
& today, a couple was looking to adopt. Those two men told her that if Danger really cared about her, he'd let her get adopted by the nice family, or at least use a real coin.
But he didn't. He let the couple take him, & that told her everything she needed to know. Danger wasn't her best friend, he was a self-righteous, selfish jerk.
She had no idea how much this decision would haunt Danger for years to come. But at that point, why would she care?
Soon after that, she was adopted by the two men, Stoney & Bugsy, & raised as a villain, with Danger Duck as her biggest enemy.
Background: For as long as he can remember, Sylvester has always been into cartoons and has always dreamed of becoming an animator one day. On his sixth birthday, Sylvester's parents got him an Animated Lifeform Printer, a special and very popular kind of printer that was able to bring animated characters to life. And so, for the next 16 years, Sylvester would bring plenty of characters to life, becoming his dearest friends and family. Having recently graduated from college, Sylvester and his toons have moved out the family home to move to Toon Lake City, the animation capital of the world, in order to pursue his dreams. And luckily, he’s gotten a job as a creator at the local animation studio based there. So now, he and his toons are making the best cartoons they can! Mild-mannered, somewhat anxious, and very much accident-prone, Sylvester always tries his best to keep his toons in check, especially now given how they’re living on their own in a big house together.
Here it is, the first part of my series of redesigns/rewrite for CartoonMania!
And to start this off, we have the main star of the series himself, Matthew Littlemore Sylvester Nelvana!
In terms of his background, it’s not too different from the original.
If you followed any of Matthew’s socials when they were still up.
Since a lot of this stuff was not featured in the series itself.
Like I said, he’s the master of the art of “tell, don’t show”.
Also, Sylvester actually has a personality here!
As I’ve stated before, Matthew Sylvester was a combination of being both bland and annoying.
Since the only thing to this character was him getting angry and constantly yelling.
Which got real old, real quick.
For his personality, I was inspired by characters like Rocko from Rocko’s Modern Life, Jon Arbuckle from Garfield, and Stanley Ipkiss from The Mask.
Funnily enough in the latter case, Stanley is actually also a lover of cartoons and comics as well.
Has for his look.
Art-style, wise.
I wanted to make him look more appealing than how he originally look.
Especially when it came to his outfit.
Seriously, what the hell is this outfit? Especially the shirt.
So I decided to give him a more casual (and clearer) look.
As for the beanie, that was inspired by Sylvester’s current look in the current version of CartoonMania: 320 Freleng Avenue.
I figured that for all of Sylvester’s outfits, he would wear some sort of hat.
And so, I gave him a beanie to fit with his more casual look, and to emphasize how young he is.
And lastly, for his voice, that would be done by Eric Bauza.
The man has a very wide vocal range, so I’m certain he would be able to provide a voice that's a perfect balance between being grounded and kinda goofy.
Yeah, remember that post when I said I would rework my ocs. Here's that. ⚠️ (YAP WARNING)
Hehehe... starting with these three!
Remiez, Sage, and Aylene
Okay. So initially, it was supposed to be a trio of villains. Sage, Aylene, and Remiez. They're not like full blown destroy the planet villains though. They're evil, yeah, but with a common goal. *One in which I can't truly say yet.* Basically they're all just a band of misfits. That may or may not result in destruction...
But unfortunately when I added Frazier, Azriel and Aniyah... they could've just been their own thing, but they'd have no direction, no ideas on how to live or move on. They're all like, lost. And yeah, it could've been one of those stories where they find their own way, but I didn't do that, and I've already gotten a lot of lore for them written already and I don't really wanna start over. (Stubborn, I'm sorry.)
But! When I took this route, I made it heavily implied that Sage was the main influence to all of them, so it worked out! (He's... pretty influential... but it's not too hard to ignore him. Please do.)
Bluhhh here's a better look at their designs.
This guy is Sage. Hahaha. He's your typical bad evil man... but don't let that fool you!!! He says all his goals are fir the greater good. So maybe... you're the villain for getting in his way? (Don't take this loser seriously.)
This goober is Remiez. Not much to say about them... they're everything you'd expect a "Trickster Demon" to be. Though, they do love to hang out with their friends. Despite causing annoyance to everyone, they still have a soft spot. Even the most dangerous trickster can be nice. (But not for too long.)
This is Aylene. It's rare to see her out in the open, but when you do, it's best to stay away. She loves her personal space, yes. But, she literally will not hesitate to put you 20 feet under if you even look at her the wrong way.
Just.. uhm. Be cautious. For your sake.
These are my oc "redesigns" I love them, and I hope you'll come to love them too! (*＞∇＜)
Making the lamest Spider-Man Villain cool with a tiny change.
Big Wheel is truly a joke of a villain, a guy named Weele who drives a big wheel. How could you make that cool?
Imagine this
The mech is truly indestructible.
The Tinkerer uses a better mech to retrieve it from the bay every time and re-sells it again and again to a new loser one-time villain who needs a giant mech but cant afford the 50 vermilion dollars for a gundam and settle for the far more affordable big wheel.
The mech is sold only on name recognition.
-Customer: The big wheel, didn't rocket racer defeat that thing?
-Tinkerer: User error, and not a scratch on it. Its famous!
The Big Wheel leaves a trail of destruction everywhere it goes and is therefore impossible to hide so the driver is always caught.
The Tinkerer always uses a larger mech to recover it from the harbor or police impound to fix and re-sell later.
Defeating the Big Wheel becomes a right of passage for New York superheroes, they've all done it and young heroes just starting out always fight it dramatically and for major heroes it's the one panel annoyance that makes them late to work.
And of course everybody makes fun of the one guy who actually lost to bigwheel once (not his fault his powers fritzed out)
As the core headcanon "Willow has pyrokinetic powers and maybe They hunted her down because of this before getting her into the Constant" is now confirmed (thanks Klei), I think it might be time for me to explain my personal HC about Willow. Which is the only character for which I have a full HC besides Wilson.
1) Willow's family was hunted down by Them as well
Powers might be recurring in Willow's family and They hunted them down, causing them to die or go insane as a result. Or even worse, They caused such accidents that they lived constantly on the run because the other people saw them as the causes of the accidents and were considered dangerous criminals as a result. Willow's parents do not appear in the short, but if one of them had powers and they were not killed by Them, there is a chance they might be trapped in the Constant too. Willow might meet a family member supposed dead into the Constant. That would not be the craziest thing that happened until now.
That would also explain why Willow has a girl scout training: her family knew they would die and Willow would be trapped into the Constant one day, so they sent Willow in a safe place where she could actually learn how to survive on her own in a harsh and hostile world. They wanted her to be ready to face her fate.
2) Willow is not a pyromaniac. Not in the traditional sense of the term
And her short clearly showed how it happened. Willow seems to be new to the orphanage (her dress is clean, Bernie was new until the nurses took it from her), and she was not expecting to be punished for her behavior until she noticed the nurses were angry at her. This means that her losing her family happened recently (and she still reminds her grandma, suggesting that she was already quite old when that happened. And the thing that reminds her grandma's hands is, incidentally, a small glowing berry. Did her grandma use her fire tricks to play with her when she was a kid?) Yet They found her. A Terrorbeak entered into a bedroom full of sleeping children and immediately attacked a sleeping Willow with the intent to kill her. And it was only during that accident that Willow finds out that Bernie, probably the last gift her family gave her, has the power to protect her from the Shadow Creatures. When she was separated from Bernie and the creature came back she found out about her fire powers and that fire has the power to destroy the Shadow Creatures, at least in our world. She caused a part of the orphanage to explode and left it behind for the fire to consume it. She was forced to live on her own from that moment on, presumed dead to the world (if there were survivors they said she was in that room when it exploded and no normal human being could survive such an explosion) with only a teddy bear, fire powers and maybe a lighter (the lighter had a cameo appearance in the short). If They attacked her again she could use Bernie against them or simply burn the closest thing nearby to keep herself warm and Them away.
Now imagine how child Willow could have felt about her fire powers. It is possible that from that moment on Willow considered the Fire as an entity that wants to protect her and keep her safe, a friend. To Willow fire is a living being that needs to be nourished and cheered, and burning down as much as she can is her way to take care of her friend and to show him gratitude for keeping her safe. Which is exactly what fire does in change. Willow calls fire "friend" in the game, and refers to it like it is a living entity in more than one occasion. And if she witnessed her family members use their fire powers to protect themselves from Them, they could have explained Willow the situation by using similar words so she would not be scared. Knowing this now, can we still call Willow a crazy pyromaniac? Maybe your opinion is different from mine, but I don't think so.
3) Her power's changes have a lore
Willow has fire-related powers. She probably never told anyone about it, and probably she never had human friends because of her "being hunted down by Shadow Monsters" situation. Her fire powers activate because of stress and she doesn't want to care if someone gets hurt during her personal battle for survival. So when They manage to trap her in the Constant and she simply doesn't care. She was all alone even before and she had a girl scout training. They probably made her a favor in her opinion.
But then DST happens and she is suddenly surrounded by kind people in the same situation that don't believe her to be crazy (mostly). She is not fighting just for herself anymore and she slowly learns to care about other people again. But in change she needs to face a series of challenges about her personal abilities: she can't let the fire destroy everything anymore, as she now lives with other people that would die if she lets her powers wreak havoc like she used to do to protect herself. For the first time in her life she is forced and had the motivation to try and control her power. At first it is difficult and she feels like she is betraying the Fire, and her powers grow weaker as a result (partial fire immunity and feeling cold when insane). However, Bernie seems to gain a conscience and starts to protect Willow and the others from the Shadow Creatures like he used to do when she was a kid. With time and some training, Willow finally accepts that she can control her fire in other ways than just let it destroy everything. She is immune again, her fire last longer, and she is also resistant to heat... which makes her wonder why everyone walks around in summer with an Umbrella when all they need is just a cold Thermal Stone! But she still misses lighting fires in Winter because she found out how much she hates being cold. And Bernie grows more powerful too becoming a hulking protector, and for some reason she found her old plushie Ashley again! And everything is amazing.
So the stream is over now, and this is the product of 6 hours worth of live work.
(Also realised it didn’t record any of it)
But heres my Harpy!Streki, in her vibrancy.
